Harriton’s Rams flipping the switch on a new start

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News

J. Mason | August 27, 2022

Harriton 41-20 win over Roxobrough on Friday Night was more then just their first win in four years.  It was a switch being flipped on a program that has bravely battled through some rough years.  Last November the Harriton Football team asked for a reprieve from the Central League for two years.  The team had battled through the last nine years under Coach Justin Mellor, boldly and bravely but with no real success.  With player numbers dwindling the team need time to rebuild and strengthen.  As the Harrtion Rams took the field tonight, with more players than they have had for the last few years, you could almost feel the nervousness in the air it was as thick as the humidity on this late August night.  It didn’t take long for the fans to realize that the team had made the right decision. On the first play Senior receiver Matt Krebbs had a 61 yard run for a touchdown on a screen pass from Senior Quarterback Logan Rothberg.  Matt Krebbs would end the night with three touch downs and one interception. Two minutes into the first quarter and the Rams were on the scoreboard. It was only moments later that the Rams were back on offense, having stopped Roxbrough and holding them to a zero yard gain on their first possession, that Junior Jay Cahow ran in a touchdown, which would be his first of two touchdowns for the night.   Senior Quarterback Logan Rothberg’s pass game really shined tonight, there were several times he felt pressure from Roxobrough’s Defensive line and needed to run with the ball but most of the night the Harriton o-line was able to provide Rotherberg with enough time to find his receivers and make some long passes downfield. Usually Rothberg relies heavily on Senior Matt Krebbs and Sophomore Colin Sullivan, who also scored a touchdown tonight, to help him make big plays happen, but having more time allowed Logan to spread the ball around and Harrtion got to enjoy some big plays from other receivers like Jeremiah Patterson who had a touchdown tonight and junior receiver Jibriil Rumph who had some big catches as well.

Defensively the Rams did very well, holding Roxborough to only a few yards each possession. Roxbrough’s offense is undisciplined and had a lot of unnecessary penalties like illegal formations, holding, two many players on the filed. Any type of momentum they started to have was broken up by their own mistakes. Roxbrough’s saving grace was their players athleticism. Their players play hard, fast and are all over the field which any type of mistake from the opposing team will be monopolized on which happened in the third quarter when Harriton’s quaterback through a hurried pass that ended up being intercepted. Roxobrough has a strong team but as Coach Michael Stanley stated to me after the game “They are better than how they performed tonight.”

As the Harrtion fans excitedly counted down the last ten seconds from the stands the players let out a roar of joy that allowed them to finally breath in their first win in many years.  I spoke with Coach Mellor after the game, he was excited about the outcome and how well his team played. He said he was most excited for the seniors on the team, who have worked so hard over the last year.  You could see tonight as the players stood in their huddle after the game that a switch has been flipped for this team and they are ready for an exciting season.

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